Opening the white door, Sable took a breath, preparing to face her final nightmare, but to her surprise, nothing waited on the other side
There was no sound, color, or even air.
Pausing at the threshold, she widened her eyes, glancing behind her to see if Morpheus was still there.
"…Well. This isn't ominous at all."
Turning back around, she stepped forward, and immediately, everything changed.
The door vanished, and behind her was only a cracked wall.
The hallway she stood in was narrow, barely wide enough for her shoulders and the ceiling was low and leaking something wet.
There wasn't anyone here but her and a hallway that stretched too long in both directions.
The floor was concrete, the walls were old brick painted gray, but chunks of it had been peeled away as if something with claws ripped into it.
"Ah man… this is straight out of Silent Hill… oh whatever, I'll be fine…"
To her surprise, there was no magic here.
Lifting her hand, Sable tried conjuring her mana, but her energy didn't respond. It felt... disconnected, as if it had been cut off at the root.
She reached for her Determination Flames, and there was nothing; just her fists, thoughts, and the breath in her lungs.
"...Okay, no magic." She muttered. "We're doing this the hard way then!"
She walked through the narrow hallway, visibly on edge.
"God fucking damnit, I knew I should've listened to Pa when it came to horror movies! I like them so much but they give me the creeps! Am I some masochist? Heh… probably…" She joked to herself to try and ease her mind, but a scraping sound suddenly made her stop.
It came from behind the wall.
It sounded like dozens of legs scraping against stone.
"Holy shit… oh man! This is freaking me out!"
The sound passed, slowly, dragging along the other side of the wall like something tall was walking sideways through the brick itself.
Sable could barely breathe as the scraping faded.
"I hope I'm not shitting myself in the awaken world right now… Jesus Christ!"
She took a deep breath and continued onwards. The hallway went on for minutes, or maybe even hours, it was hard to tell.
Eventually, the lights started to flicker overhead, from one bulb to the other… and then the other—until total darkness.
"Eek!"
She nearly jumped out of her skin before reaching out in front of her, blindly.
"I'd rather fight seven other me's than deal with this…!"
Ambling forward with her arm stretched out, a sudden smell hit her next.
It smelled like… Rot? Covering her mouth, the scraping of many legs returned, but closer this time.
Sable froze as a voice hissed into her ear.
"Ssshhhhh... it hears you."
"Uaaaaaagh!" Sable jerked away, but there was no one there.
She backed up against the wall with a fast heartbeat as the bricks ahead began to crack, revealing light from the outside.
A hand—no—not a hand. It wasn't anything human! It started to push through.
It was long and boneless, breaking through the wall to force its way into the hallway.
"S-Shit!!"
It appeared glistening like wet chitin as its inhuman limbs slithered through the cracked wall, dragging its knuckled joints across the brick. It bent in directions that defied physics without muscles or bones.
Then came the rest of it—
Its head pushed through next. It was elongated, eyeless, with a gaping maw that split vertically from forehead to chin.
There were no teeth and only a tunnel of muscle and tendrils.
Sable's knees nearly gave out as she backed up a few feet.
"Oh fuck me sideways—Hell no!!"
Needless to say, she turned tail and ran.
The sound of her shoes slamming against concrete was nothing compared to the squelching slap of the thing dropping from the wall and landing behind her.
It didn't even roar as it gave chase, making the situation all the more eerie.
It was fast as it's limbs moved like spider legs, scraping the walls and ceiling to pull it forward, faster than it should've been able to move in a narrow space like this.
Its joints bent backward, arms latching to the corners of the ceiling as it moved head-first, after her.
"I don't know what happens if I die in this world, but I'm not sticking around to find out!!"
In front of Sable, the lightbulbs turned on, revealing a left and right paths she could take. Without hesitation, she took the left, not slowing down for a second.
Behind her, the creature matched her turn with a disjointed jerk that made a sound like bones snapping in reverse.
"What kind of Silent Hill Resident Evil bullshit is this?!"
The lights flickered back to life just long enough for her to see a ladder ahead that was bolted into the wall, leading up into a rusted maintenance hatch.
Widening her eyes, she didn't think about where it led. She lunged for the ladder, grabbing the first rung as she hoisted herself up as fast as she could.
"Shit… shit shit!"
Sable didn't look down as she climbed, hoping to reach the surface in time.
The creature suddenly howled, releasing a devilish screech as its limbs hit the wall before it reached up to grab the rung her foot was on, and to her surprise, it whispered her name—
"Saaaablllllle…"
Her foot slipped.
Sable's converse caught against a rung slick with slime as her body dropped half a foot.
"NONONO—!"
She pulled herself up just as the creature slammed into the ladder's base once again, rattling the entire shaft.
Its claws slashed up, missing her leg by inches.
She reached the top, trying to open the hatch above her, but it wouldn't even budge.
"Mother fucker!!" She rammed it with her shoulder, once, twice, suddenly hearing the creature below her start to climb. "Oh fuck!" She screamed and slammed into the hatch with every bit of force she had left.
With a shriek of metal and a burst of light, the hatch finally popped open.
She scrambled through, dragging herself onto a concrete floor before slamming the hatch shut.
"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!!" She locked the hatch by the lever, cussing the creature out as it was forced to retreat down below.
Her entire body went still as she lay on her back, heaving breath after breath into her aching lungs.
"…Haaaa… okay." She muttered. "That was... not fun. Fuck this entire hallway. Burn it, salt it. Pretend it never existed!"
She sat up, blinking with her hair disheveled.
The new room was circular and lit by a single light bulb that dangled from the ceiling like a noose.
Pipes lined the walls, some rusted while others were still dripping.
In the middle of the room was a table, and on the table was a radio, but that's not what caught her attention. Nearby on the wall was an image.
"Huh?" Lifting her brows, she approached the image with confused eyes, grasping at the picture. "Wait, this is that same creature that chased after me… ain't it?"
She read the following: "Nightgaunts. Creatures that Inhabit the Dreamlands. These monsters are known for abducting individuals and, somewhat strangely, tickling them with their many legs. They're only found in dreams, existing between reality and unreality, being and non-being. Only fools dare to challenge them in their nightmares."
Sable lifted her brows, taken aback by this newfound information, now questioning everything at once.
"Wait a minute… they abduct individuals and can keep them in their dreams? At least that's what I'm assuming…" She crossed her arms. "Are you seriously telling me I can actually die in this place or something?"
She realized the dire situation she was in, and could feel her heart rate increase.
"This sounds like one of Lovecraft's creations, I'm a big fan of his… but no way in hell do I wanna deal with his lunatic monsters!"
She grasped the paper from the wall, ripping it off to ball it up and toss it across the room.
"Man, how do I defeat a nightmare like this? Is Morpheus expecting me to fight a freaking Nightgaunt?"
Sable paced the chamber, muttering to herself, still out of breath and soaked in a nervous sweat.
"Okay… let's brainstorm…" She muttered, arms crossed tight against her chest. "So that thing's a Nightgaunt. Dreamland horror. Abducts people and maybe even tickles them to insanity. God, even saying that out loud feels like I'm in a psych ward!"
She sat down at the table as her thoughts reeled.
"I have no magic, spells, or even mana. All I've got is sweat, sarcasm, and this pounding headache I'm getting right now…"
She took another deep breath.
"Alright. If it's a nightmare… then it plays by nightmare rules, right? The way dreams do; there isn't any logic, laws, or reason. But that has to go both ways."
She rubbed her face with both hands, trying to make sense of her predicament.
"If this is my nightmare, then I should be able to control something. Maybe not magic, but willpower got me this far, right? That fire, my Determination Flames, it came from me trying, and refusing to give up."
Her eyes narrowed.
"But how do you fight a thing that's not… fightable? It's not even a monster. It's a concept. Fear, maybe? No… it exists between being and non-being, or whatever the hell that means!"
She clenched her fists, recalling the way the Nightgaunt moved.
"…You don't fight that kind of fear. You escape it, or maybe outthink it." She huffed a sigh, falling back on the table. "This nightmare of mine is forcing me to rely on wits, and not magic. Just great…"